Telford victim says she was sold for sex by abusers every day for four years - and no one helped her
A woman has spoken in shocking detail about how she was subjected to four years of abuse at the hands of a Telford gang who sold her ‘countless times’ for sex.
The victim, going by the name of ‘Holly’, told Good Morning Britain said her abuse first started when she was just 14, becoming a ‘whirlwind of rape’.
And she lashed out at authorities who did ‘nothing’ to help her during her ordeal.
Speaking anonymously, she said: ‘I was abused from the ages of 14-18, my abuse started with boys my own age, who went on to sell my phone number to older men.
‘And from there it was just a whirlwind of rape every day basically. I was going into the doctors and the youth sexual health clinic to get the morning after pill, probably twice a week, and nobody even questioned anything.
‘I had two abortions, still nothing was said to me. I was in cars that were stopped by the police and they asked me no questions of why I was there with a much older man… it got to the point where I tried to commit suicide, and still nobody asked me any questions about what was going on in my life and why I was reacting the way I was reacting.’
It emerged this week that gangs in Telford had abused up to 1,000 girls – some as young as 11 – over a period of four decades.
Girls were found to have been drugged, beaten and raped, with one girl murdered alongside her mother and sister.
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Holly said her own abuse went on for so long because she was being blackmailed by her abusers, telling her they would rape her family and burn her house down.
Asked by Susanna Reid how many men she thinks were responsible for the abuse she suffered, Holly said: ‘I couldn’t even put a figure on it, it’s that many. The main abusers, I’d say seven, but I was being sold every day, countless times, for four years.’
Holly continued her attack on the authorities during an appearance on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show.
Warning: upsetting
Telford abuse: ‘I was gang raped, I had two abortions, and was having the morning-after pill twice a week – yet nobody asked me any questions.’ pic.twitter.com/IUnisleVyR
— Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) March 13, 2018
Fighting back tears, she said: ‘I tried to commit suicide. People say “was it a cry for help?”
‘I say no, I genuinely wanted to die because it was the only way out… If somebody had shown an interest or asked some questions it may have made me speak out.’
Holly’s shocking story comes on the day it emerged that Telford and Wrekin Council in Shropshire were given 715 child sexual exploitation referrals in three years – but just 324 of the cases were referred.
A council spokesman told The Mirror that the figures ‘do not paint the whole picture’.
He added: ‘A referral to children’s safeguarding service is just one of a number of appropriate outcomes to a contact of this type.’
‘Our analysis shows that all the contacts received a proportionate response.
‘In addition to the 33% referred to Children Safeguarding Service, a further 38% were referred to another council or partner service and the remaining 29 per cent receiving information and advice.’
Holly said this morning: ‘People need to open their eyes and admit there have been massive failings. Not only do I need answers, my family need answers and the whole community need answers.
‘I’m going to keep fighting for everybody else – the survivors who haven’t got a voice – to have the opportunity to have a voice and I will continue doing that.’
Seven men were jailed in 2013 following Operation Chalice, the police inquiry into child prostitution in the Telford area.
Mubarek Ali, 34, sold teenage girls for sex above an Indian restaurant in Telford, Shropshire, after grooming them, while his brother Ahdel Ali, 27, was handed a 26-year sentence after the pair sexually abused, trafficked, prostituted or tried to prostitute four teenagers.